Oilers acquire Jaroslav Spacek

The Edmonton Oilers have obtained defenceman Jaroslav Spacek from the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for the rights to forward Tony Salmelainen. Spacek, who will be making his third Olympic appearance with the Czech Republic in Turin, Italy in February, was fourth in scoring on the Blackhawks with 7-17-24 in 45 games. One of only seven Blackhawks to have a positive plus/minus ranking, he was second in plus/minus at +8 on a team that had allowed 44 more goals than it had scored.

The 5'11", 204 pound, native of Rokycany, Czech Republic is in his seventh season in the NHL and has scored 46-140-186 with 349 penalty minutes in 465 career games.

The 31-year-old defenceman made his NHL debut with the Florida Panthers in 1998-99 and has also played with Chicago and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

He scored a single-season career-high 45 points with Columbus in 2002-03, netting nine goals and a career-high 36 assists in 81 games. The 36 assists and 45 points established single-season Blue Jacket records for most assists and points by a defenceman.

Spacek was a member of the Czech Republic's gold medal winning team at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan and also skated for his country at the 2002 games in Salt Lake City. He played four games for the Czech Republic at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and has skated at three world championships (2001, 2002, 2005), winning the gold medal in 2001.